I decided to walk the Bakhtiari twice-yearly migration over the Zagros mountains after seeing the 1926 film, Grass. My photos of Bakhtiari life were shown at SOAS in 2008; along with some much earlier images – recognising that it was on Bakhtiari land that Middle East oil was first found; and the tribe invaded Tehran in 1909.
Morteza is relaxing at the midday halt, in his more everyday striped undertrousers. On the migration, we all slept close together on the ground with the herds around us, although we usually found a less rocky place than this for the night. Note Morteza’s cartridge-belt.
Terasi was the oldest man in our walking group and he always wore the traditional black overtrousers – demonstrating the respect due to him at his age. All Bakhtiari men wear felt hats, coming down from the time of the first Iranian dynasty, the Medes (8th century BCE).
Along the way, we met lots of other families, all migrating. Only one of these women is married – it is the unmarried girls who wear the layered and brightly coloured dresses. It is usual for the smallest child to carry the all-important kettle – ready for action as soon as they halt.
Four days after we started walking, we met up with the two other families who the Faridgi usually migrate with. Here, some of us are shown getting ready to cross a small river. The boxes contain chickens and chicks – I was always told how important it is to cover these with the old jumpers, …
Morteza is with his youngest daughter Akram and their dog here, just at the start of the migration. Most Bakhtiari dogs are ferocious and not fully domesticated – this one is brave as well as smart, and I once saw him fight off seven other dogs who had all joined forces to attack him.
Water traditionally – and still now – is transported in goat-skins. These keep water and doogh (the traditional yoghurt drink) beautifully cool in the hottest weather. I took ages learning how to properly tie the skins closed.
Kazem is Golsanem’s first child and the whole extended family doted on him. Look at the wee-tube feeding into the cup hanging off the end – a smart move when there are certainly no disposable nappies and the nearest water is a donkey-ride away.
Golsanem is the wife of Morteza’s youngest son and lives with her parents-in-law whilst her husband works up in the hills with the flocks. She works hard all the time. As a young woman, married into the Faridgi family, she is at the bottom of the food hierarchy and so is always hungry. Here she …
Paridjan is Morteza’s wife and mother of their ten children – nine of whom are still alive. Here she is handspinning, whilst grazing the family’s cow in the cemetery where her tenth child is buried. She has been ‘visiting’ her daughter – knocking on the grave with a stone to talk to the deceased in …
Twice a year, the nomad Bakhtiari walk over the Zagros Mountains of SW Iran (3000-5000m elevation). Each family follows traditional mountain paths, taking their flocks between the winter pastures (garmsir) near Lali in Khuzistan province and the summer pastures (sardsir) near Shahr-e-Kord, south west of the ancient city of Isfahan. The photographs here offer an …